The changes to Rule 41 should make it easier for referees to make calls regarding boarding penalties. It now penalizes players who fail to avoid or minimize contact with a defenseless opponent along the boards. On the other hand, it also gives referees discretion if they believe the victim put himself into a vulnerable position in the last moment before a hit, making the conclusion unavoidable. (Referees will also make judgment calls about the severity of the impact.)

Rule 48 has been simplified with a significant deleted phrase. A hit will now be illegal if the head is the “principal point of contact” without the exception of a “blindside or lateral hit.” Debating the suspension-worthiness of a check last season often seemed like splitting hairs because of the “blindside or lateral hit” provision, so this should make things much clearer. Much like the boarding alteration, there is some leeway given to hitters if the recipient moved into that position at an inopportune moment.

(Am I the only one who thinks that it’s still kind of weird to view Brendan Shanahan in the role of league disciplinarian – or as an NHL executive in general, really?)

On paper, these changes seem like strong steps in the right direction. The league is also looking into other measures to make the game safer, but many make a valid argument that it still comes down to the players cleaning up their acts. Steven Stamkos has been outspoken about this subject, which you can see in the video below.

Whatever the case may be, the NHL needs to do what it can to minimize the odds for serious injuries. Using safer equipment and implementing more straightforward rules are two solid ways to move in the right direction, but the 2011-12 season will ultimately decide if Shanahan & Co. are on the correct course.

When one of the game’s best young players speaks, people listen. When he speaks out about a controversial topic that has been at the forefront of the NHL over the last couple of years, people listen, sit up, and take note. The young sniper shared his feelings on headshots, the NHL’s rule 48, and suspensions stemming from illegal hits to the head. Instead of going the easy route and saying the league needs to do more to help protect its players, the former #1 overall pick was quick to put accountability on his fellow players. He could be onto something.

Stamkos tells Damian Cristodero that players need to be responsible and take accountability for their actions. He understands that accidents will happen in such a face-paced, violent game, but some of the concussions can be avoided by the players on the ice.

“At the end of the day I’m not saying every one of those hits that resulted in a concussions was avoidable. It’s going to happen. It’s a contact sport its so fast you’re going to get them. But in order to minimize them I think as a player you have to be aware of the situation on the ice. We’re trying with the head shot rule. I don’t know what other rules you can put in to prevent it. Guys have to be responsible. … You look at some of the head shots, guys are blatantly putting their elbows up. A guy’s back is turned and you hit him into the boards. That comes down to common sense. We all know how to deliver a clean body check. You have to be accountable for your actions on the ice. With some of the suspensions getting a little steeper, guys are going to realize that if they do that, they’re not going to get away with it.”

Stamkos’ comments come the same week that it was announced that Marc Savard will be shut down for the 2011-12 season—and possibly the rest of his career. The league can institute as many rules as they want, but if the players on the ice don’t respect the rules and their opposition, none of that will matter. It starts with the players. Rules, regulation, and enforcement only go so far—at some point the players are the only ones who can change the culture of the NHL.

Simply put: the new rules work if the players stop hitting the opponent in the head. They don’t work if they continue to be reckless.

Fans may remember that Stamkos suffered a mild concussion when he played for Team Canada at the World Championships last year in Germany. The play that led to his concussion was not something that would have been eliminated under Rule 48—but still, the 21-year-old is familiar with the effects of a concussion. With players like Paul Kariya, Matthew Lombardi, David Perron, and Savard missing long stretches of the 2010-11 season (or the entire season), the spotlight on headshots and concussions has never burned brighter.

Stamkos went on to say that the Rule 48 is “a good start” and that it shouldn’t matter whether a guy is injured on the play or not for a suspension. Most people agree with both points—Rule 48 was a step in the right direction. There’s an on-going debate whether the NHL should eliminate all hits to the head; but most agree that eliminating head shots when the player is in a vulnerable position was the right course of action.

Likewise, most people agree that a player should be punished for the action—not the result. If a player does something reckless and illegal, then the dangerous play should be punished accordingly. Whether or not the player was injured shouldn’t play into the discipline equation. One day we may get to that point.

At least for now, Stamkos is showing that players see it the same way as a lot of fans do.

Before we provide you with the full rules, here is a basic summary of how each rule has been altered.

Rule 41 has been changed so that it penalizes players who fail to avoid or minimize contact with a defenseless opponent along the boards. NHL.com points out that it also gives referees some discretion to determine if the victim of a hit put himself into a vulnerable position just moments before the hit happened, making the conclusion unavoidable.

Rule 48 received essential deletions: a hit will be illegal if the head is the “principal point of contact” with the “blindside or lateral hit” phrases taken out of the description. This change will be welcomed by many who thought that the “blindside or lateral hit” language allowed disciplinarians too much leeway to let offending parties off without a penalty. Most of the gray area has been removed.

41.1 Boarding – A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously. The severity of the penalty, based upon the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee.

There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position and if so, he must avoid or minimize contact. However, in determining whether such contact could have been avoided, the circumstances of the check, including whether the opponent put himself in vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the check or whether the check was unavoidable can be considered. This balance must be considered by the referees when applying this rule.

Any unnecessary contact with a player playing the puck on an obvious “icing” or “off-side” play which results in that player hitting or impacting the boards is “boarding” and must be penalized as such. In other instances where there is no contact with the boards, it should be treated as “charging.”

New Wording of Rule 48 – Illegal Check to the Head

48.1 Illegal Check To The Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted. However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was unavoidable, can be considered.

48.2 Minor Penalty – For violation of this rule, a minor penalty shall be assessed.

48.3 Major Penalty – There is no provision for a major penalty for this rule.

48.4 Game Misconduct – There is no provision for a game misconduct for this rule.

48.5 Match Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a match penalty if, in his judgment, the player attempted to or deliberately injured his opponent with an illegal check to the head.

If deemed appropriate, supplementary discipline can be applied by the Commissioner at his discretion.

The NHL’s GM’s met in Boston today to discuss the state of the league and the one subject that came up big once again was shots to the head. After all with what happened to Nathan Horton and his severe concussion suffered in Game 3 that took place here in Boston, it was necessary for something to be discussed.

Coming into focus was Rule 48 that was added by the NHL before this season meant to punish any player who targeted the head of an unsuspecting opponent with a blindside shot to the head. Today, a panel made up of Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk, Lightning GM Steve Yzerman, and NHL executive office members Brendan Shanahan and Rob Blake proposed removing “blindside” from the description of Rule 48.

The motivation behind that is to better protect all players and get rid of a loophole that somewhat existed with the rule as it was written. After all, if a player suffered a head shot that wasn’t a blindside blow it’s possible it could’ve been worked around that it didn’t fall under Rule 48.

For instance, the hit Horton took from Aaron Rome in Game 3 wasn’t considered for Rule 48 at all by NHL VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy and was judged simply as an interference penalty. You could argue that his handing down of a four game suspension to Rome for his hit was effectively the start of that line of thinking. Trying to make this rule as clear as possible in a situation where sometimes the causes and results can be blurred out by circumstances helps out in the long run to help protect the players.

There are steps before this can be approved, however. The NHL competition committee will meet on Monday to discuss the matter and then it’ll be up to the Board of Governors to approve the alteration when they meet on June 21. Don’t expect there to be too much debate amongst everyone over this issue as the NHL has taken enough heat for resisting change for as long as they have on these matters. After all, NCAA hockey and some junior hockey leagues have rules in place that outlaw shots to the head at all. Having the premiere professional league in the world be resistant to change there doesn’t look good to many fans. The fact that this subtle change to Rule 48 still doesn’t totally ban shots to the head may still irk some fans.

These changes are happening slowly over time, but we can be thankful that they’re happening at all and moving forward to protect the players on the ice. It should come as no surprise that those that are helping push these things forward are players-turned-executives who want to see current players staying in the game longer and avoiding potentially career-ending or life-debilitating injuries. Now if they could do something about making the players have a better sense of respect for one another we’d be really getting somewhere.

While tonight’s game was ugly for more than a few reasons, as will happen in an 8-1 game that saw the Bruins beat the Canucks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, there was some true awfulness to come out of it thanks to Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome.

Rome took out Bruins forward Nathan Horton early in the first period of tonight’s game with a wicked blindside hit to the head, a virtual automatic violation of the NHL’s Rule 48 outlawing hits to the head of defenseless players. Rome’s hit put Horton down on the ice and dazed before he was removed from the ice on a stretcher and taken to Mass General Hospital for observation. Rome was given a five minute major for interference and a game misconduct booting him from the game.

With the debate over blows to the head lingering on all season long, Rome’s hit won’t go without being talked to as he’s got an in-person meeting at 11 a.m. ET scheduled with NHL VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy. Murphy is filling in for Colin Campbell as Campbell has to recuse himself as his son Greg plays for the Bruins. Given the severity of the hit and how late and blindsided it was, the expectation is that Rome will be suspended for the play.

As always, trying to predict potential suspensions is a fool’s gambit in the NHL and with things going on in the Stanley Cup finals the importance of the games skews how punishment can be doled out. This time around with the hit being as bad as it was and it happening on the league’s biggest stage, expect the league to take action on Rome. While the league failed to take any action against Alex Burrows for his bite on Patrice Bergeron, this blow to the head of Horton is serious business as far as keeping up appearances for the NHL.

If the league doesn’t take action against Rome the credibility the game has for how seriously they’re trying to protect their players will come under serious fire. They cannot afford to miss on this one.